ENGLAND U21S HOLDING PATTERN Gunners star to carry on back-packing
TWELVE months ago, Rob Holding lay on his bunk bed in a £5-a-night hostel in Thailand, wondering just what lay in store for him in professional football.
One year later, he has his answer.
A breakthrough into Arsenal’s first team, a call- up to join the England’s Under-21 side and, to top it all, an FA Cup winner’s medal.
Not bad at all for a player who was plucked from the fringes of Bolton’s starting line- up and dunked, head-first, into life at one of the biggest clubs in Europe.
In fact, Holding came within a whisker of turning his back on the full-time game altogether.
He was in the third year of a trainee scheme at the Macron Stadium and had plans to study in America on a football scholarship, had he not made the cut.
This time last year, Holding was still a Bolton player. And although the Gunners had registered an interest, he was on a back-packing holiday with a potentially lifechanging carrot at the end of it.
He said: “I was on my way down to the last game of the season for Bolton, at Fulham. I heard a club was interested – when I found out it was Arsenal, I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t tell anyone. Only my dad. I said, ‘You’re not going to believe this...’.
“It meant that it was weird summer. I was out in Thailand, back-packing with some mates. I kept getting calls saying, ‘We’re keeping it on track, everything is getting settled’. All I could do was try and enjoy my holiday.
“We stayed in £5-a-night places with bunk beds. I actually enjoyed it. It was great fun. We went to all the bog-standard tourist sights, like Monkey Island. It was nice to have a bit of freedom.
Chant
“I like back- packing and I’ve bought all the gear now. I’m sure I’ll chuck the clothes in a bag again one day and book in somewhere.”
Holding is still only 21 and hadn’t even played a full season with the Trotters before being set on the road to stardom. But it almost never came. He said: “I had an extended year on my scholarship – my third. Some mates had signed professional. Some people say they don’t want it at that stage, but it’s another year of development in football, so I took it.
“If it hadn’t worked, I’d have gone to America to play college football and, hopefully, I would have been drafted afterwards. But Neil Lennon arrived at Bolton and the Under-21s coach Ian Brunskill told me to stay because I would make it. Andy Hughes, now assistant at Huddersfield, said I could do it if I put my mind to it.” Holding certainly proved that. So much so that Arsenal’s fans are using a chant, which compares him to Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro. High praise, indeed.
He added: “I wouldn’t say it was a gamble because when a club like Arsenal comes in, you’re not going to get much bigger. You might never get that chance again, so you have to grab it with both hands.
“Arsene Wenger was good with me on the pre-season tour in Los Angeles. We were putting our boots on and he sat next to me and said he liked what he was seeing. He made me feel really comfortable.
“Then I got introduced to Steve Bould and we went through a lot of defensive work on video analysis at training and it has all paid off.
“I’ve played a hell of a lot more than I expected. I played in every cup competition. It was surreal standing there listening to the Champions League music.
“And it was difficult to believe I was involved in the FA Cup Final. That was crazy. I was told I was playing when we had a team meeting the day before.
“And to cap it all, we won the trophy.”